Hamed Haddadi, left, Mehdi Kamrani, middle, and Nikkhah Bahrami share a laugh while heading back to the bench. Fiba.com
Gilas Pilipinas’ path to the Jones Cup Invitational championship got a boost after reports that Iranian center Hamed Haddadi might skip events for his national team to focus on the World Cup Qualifying tournaments next year.
Fiba.com reported on Tuesday that Haddadi, easily one of the most dominant centers in the region in the last decade, would not be playing for Iran in the Fiba Asia Championship, an event that doesn’t count in the Qualifying process.
The Jones Cup also doesn’t count and with the event to be played starting this weekend in Chinese Taipei, Haddadi could also be skipping the event to get some injuries to heal and be 100 percent for Iran in the home-and-away games.
“After the Fiba Asia Challenge last year, I had an injury and had to rest, but I still needed to play with Sichuan in China,” Fiba.com quoted the 7-foot-2 Haddadi, a former Memphis Grizzlies player in the NBA.
“My injury got worse after, and now I need to rest this summer and be ready for the Asia Qualifiers,” he said.
The Fiba Asia, which will be the regional championship, is slated Aug. 8 to 20 in Beirut, Lebanon.
Haddadi embraces this time to rest to also allow younger players to develop.
“They are young and need to be in camp for practice,” he went on. “If we want the national team to improve and be stronger, we should trust the young players and give them more time.”
Iran has won five of the last eight editions of the Jones Cup and this would be the second straight year—if ever—that Haddadi would miss the multi-nation event.
Gilas Pilipinas plays nine games in as many days starting Saturday against a club team from Canada and would wind up that hectic schedule—in what could go down as a game for the championship—against the Iranians on July 23.
There’s no doubt that with Andray Blatche not in the roster and with PBA veterans not included, Gilas doesn’t have one man that can match up one-on-one with Haddadi.
The Philippines is actually the defending champion in the Jones Cup after thumping everyone with a team made up of several Americans, including former NBA All-Rookie Team member Al Thornton, last year.
In 2012, LA Tenorio was named MVP after Gilas defeated Team USA in the final day as Chot Reyes became the first Filipino coach to win the tournament.